Laetrile Spammers
Facing $631,585 Penalty

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

A federal magistrate has ordered Christian Brothers, of Whitestone,
New York, and its president Jason Vale, to stop abusing America
Online's network and trademark in an attempt to sell products.
Court documents indicate that the company had unlawfully obtained
mailing lists of the e-mail addresses of AOL members and used
AOL's computer networks to send more than 20 million messages
-- at times sending hundreds of thousands of messages per hour
[1].

The company's product line includes apricot seeds, amygdalin,
and a book and a videotape that promote them. Amygdalin is a cyanide-containing
compound found in the seeds of apricots and several other fruits.
Also marketed as laetrile
or "Vitamin B17," it has been promoted as a cancer remedy
for more than 40 years. However, it is neither safe nor effective
and is not legal to market or import into in the United States
[2].

The unsolicited messages, sent with an aol.com return address,
provided links to one of at least ten Web sites that provided
further information. Some messages pretended that a third party
was making the recommendation. For example:

There are many web sites out there that are showing that the
answer to cancer has been known. Some of the companies that tell
the truth about cancer are Christian Brothers, Something 4U and
World Without Cancer Inc. These companies have been showing the
evidence that when a person adds bitter seeds to their diet which
contain the vitamin B17, they will not get cancer any time in
their life. These companies also show that after a person has
been diagnosed with cancer, simply adding seeds and vitamin B17
to their diet can shrink the tumors and will protect the rest
of the person's body.

AOL's membership agreement prohibits the sending of unsolicited
commercial bulk e-mail messages ("spam") and from collecting
or harvesting the user names, e-mail addresses, or other information
about other AOL members. In February 1998, after receiving thousands
of complaints from members, AOL demanded that Christian Brothers
stop misusing its network, but the spamming continued. AOL filed
suit in December 1998 [3]. In June 1999, after Vale chose to ignore
the suit, the presiding judge issued a default judgment and asked
a magistrate to recommend the amount of damages. The magistrate
recommended that AOL be paid $17,940 for hardware-processing costs,
triple damages of $389,020 for lost advertising revenue, $24,625
in attorney's fees, and $200,000 in punitive damages. He also
concluded that a permanent injunction was necessary [1].

In October 1998, the FDA warned Vale that his apricot-seed
products were "new drugs" and misbranded, and that he
could be subject to enforcement action if he persisted in marketing
them [4]. However, Vale's Web sites continued to make unsubstantiated
claims and even hosted a copy of the FDA warning letter. In April
2000, the Justice Department obtained a preliminary injunction
prohibiting Vale and Christian Brothers from making or distributing
amygdalin, Laetrile, "Vitamin B-17," or apricot seeds.
In November 2000, the FDA announced that Vale and his company
had signed a consent agreement to stop manufacturing, processing,
and distributing the products [5,6].